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Sikhumbuzo Moyo in Cairo, Egypt
AFTER having taunted Zimbabwe soon after the 2019 Total Africa Cup of Nations tournament draw by claiming the Warriors were the weakest team in their Group, Ugandan coach Sebastien Desabre yesterday described those media reports as ‘fake’, 24 hours before coming face to face with the Warriors at Cairo International Stadium.

The French national even suggested, at the time, that his team will be competing for second spot since the group was likely to be won by seven times African Cup of Nations champions Egypt.

Zimbabwe and Uganda collide tonight in the first of two matches at the venue with the second game featuring hosts Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Zimbabwe seems the least lucky team of the group but I know their squad and their great qualities. The group is complicated even though Egypt is the favourite to top it and our team will compete for the second spot,” Desabre told Goal back them.

When confronted by Zimbabwean journalists during a press conference here yesterday, Desabre made a dramatic about turn and described the reports as fake, even though he never challenged the reports in April.

“Thank you very much for that question, I have been waiting to set the record straight. Some news is not true, it’s a fake. I respect Zimbabwe and its impossible to take Zimbabwe as a weak team because they have great players like Billiat (Khama), Musona (Knowledge), Chigova (George), Hadebe (Teenage) Devine (Lunga), It’s a very nice and good team. I also have so much respect for your coach Sunday Chidzambwa and I  respect his team so much and everytime Zimbabwe has played Uganda it has been a very difficult moment for Uganda and we are taking this game very seriously and we know it will be difficult for us. Zimbabwe lost the first game but they played very well,” he said.

Zimbabwe and Uganda have met 14 times with the Warriors claiming seven wins while the other matches ended in five draws and two wins for The Cranes.

The Warriors are likely to have home support from Egyptian fans who would not want to have a Ugandan victory as that might complicate matters for them in the event that they fail to collect maximum points against DRC later tonight.

If the Cranes win tonight, they will virtually book their place in the second round in a tournament where the top two teams in the group, and the four best runners-up, will remain here to compete in the knockout stages.

Only eight teams, the six bottom teams and the two third placed teams who would have an inferior points or goal tally to the best four third-placed teams, will also be eliminated.

The Warriors have never qualified beyond the group stages of this tournament while the resurgent Cranes, who ended a 19-year wait for a return to the Afcon finals two years ago, won their first Nations Cup game since 1978, with a 2-0 win over a lifeless DRC.

The Warriors can’t afford to lose tonight, although a draw, in the worst case circumstances, could still be a good result in the event they beat the DRC in their final match.

Zimbabwe though can  still lose and still make the second round with a win over the Congolese, in the event the results in other groups favour them, but their fate would no longer be in their hands.